20 March 2012

NPR: "Repeal Obamacare" Is Code For "White People Want Black People Hanging From Trees" Or Something

NPR Frames ObamaCare in Racial Terms

A reminder from the mainstream, tax-supported media: if you oppose
ObamaCare, that may be because you are a white racist who hates our
black president.

That's the gist of Shankar Vedantam's story this morning on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, which reports on a new study published by Michael Tesler in the American Journal of Political Science.

Tesler presents data "that suggest that the racial attitudes of
ordinary Americans have shaped both how they feel about the health care
overhaul, and how intense those feelings are."

In particular:

"Tesler finds that blacks have become increasingly supportive of
health care under Obama's watch. Among whites, Tesler finds a sharp
divide between whites who have a liberal outlook on racial issues
compared with those who have a conservative outlook on racial issues."

Yet correlation does not imply causation, and the key to understanding the divisions over ObamaCare is not race but politics.

So the key is not whether people have a liberal or conservative
"outlook on racial issues," but whether they have a liberal or
conservative outlook, period.

And the key factor in growing political divisions is not that Barack
Obama is a black president, but that he is a particularly divisive
one--far more so than his last Democratic predecessor--passing ObamaCare
with no Republican votes and distorting the parliamentary rules of the
Senate to do so.

That reality does not stop NPR from using Tesler's research to tout
race as playing a "powerful role" in debates over ObamaCare--just in
time for the second anniversary of the law's passage, and the start of
Supreme Court arguments about whether it is constitutional.

In 2010, the media did their best to tarnish opposition to ObamaCare
with false accusations of racism, and lies about the "N-word" being
hurled by Tea Party demonstrators at black legislators on Capitol Hill.

There they go again...

Sophie:

Dear NPR:

Remember Ohio's Issue 2 on collective bargaining? It was defeated with 63% of the vote. 81 of 88 counties voted to defeat it.

Do you know what else was on the ballot that day?

Issue 3, which was a referendum on an Ohio law that says no person in Ohio shall be compelled to purchase health insurance.

Do you know how it did?

It passed with 67% of the vote AND WON EVERY COUNTY IN THE STATE OF OHIO.

Were
all of those that voted against Governor Kasich's collective bargaining
reforms and for a law against Obama's individual mandate WHITE, CONSERVATIVE RACISTS?

And, again, my dear NPR:

Do you remember Proposition C in Missouri?

The measure changed state law to bar any government entity from fining a person for failing to buy health insurance.

Bear
in mind that over 315,000 Democrats turned out to cast ballots in the
primary that nominated Robin Carnahan, while over 577,000 Republicans
hit the polls. That is about a 65/35 split — which means that a
significant amount of Democrats either supported the ballot measure
repudiating ObamaCare, or didn’t bother to cast a vote to defend the
programme.

Were all of those Democrats that either supported the ballot measure
repudiating Obamacare or couldn't be bothered to defend it
WHITE, CONSERVATIVE RACISTS?

And, dear NPR:

A newly released USA Today/Gallup poll shows that, by a margin of 13
percentage points (53 to 40%), swing-state voters want Obamacare to be
repealed. The poll included registered voters in 12 key states: FL,
OH, VA, PA, WI, NV, CO, IA, NH, NC, NM, and MI. By a margin of 15
points (53 to 38%), registered voters in those state think it was “a bad
thing” that President Obama’s signature legislation was passed.

When
asked how Obamacare would affect their family’s “healthcare situation”
in “the long run,” swing-state voters said Obamacare would make it
“worse,” rather than “better,” by a margin of more than 2 to 1 (42%
“worse,” to 20% “better”).

Moreover, by the overwhelming margin of 4 to 1 (76 to 19%),
registered voters in these 12 states say that Obamacare’s individual
mandate is unconstitutional. Nationwide (not just in the swing states),
a clear majority of Democrats — 56% — agree that the individual
mandate is unconstitutional.

Are all of these people WHITE, CONSERVATIVE RACISTS?

And, dearest NPR:

Candidates and leaders of the Green Party of the United States
expressed hope that the Supreme Court will strike down the 'individual
mandate' section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the court issues a
ruling on its constitutionality in late March.